Trotsky Vs Stalin Essay - 449 Words (2024)

This is because Stalin’s rule was oppressive and led to millions of deaths for soviet citizens, and much of it through his own cruel methods. One of the first things he did was to put his communist ideas into place. He developed the collectivization policy which took small peasant farms to form large collective farms. (Document 3) In doing this, Stalin brought all of the farms under the operation of the state, upsetting the kulaks who were the wealth farmers.

To the population, war is when you are told what to fight for, and a revolution is when you decide for yourself. On April 19, 1775 was the day that America had decided for itself that we needed to be independent, the start of the American Revolution. The American revolution was over in about eight years. After the war Americans had decided to turn its focus inward and decide on what government they wanted and what America as a country would become. That is how the articles of confederation came to be on March 1, 1781 and of course like everything it had it’s pros, cons and results.

Throughout Russia’s history, there have been many rulers that tried to manage their country in different ways. Even though, all of these rulers had their own unique ways of ruling, all of them were seen as terrible by the people. This eventually led to a tipping point for the Russian citizens and the Russian Revolution took place. The goal for these people was to gain freedom from their oppressive czar but instead, they got an even worse leader. Joseph Stalin was a leader of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953 and he was known for his ability to strike fear into people.

Trotsky and Stalin had different agendas. Following Lenin’s ill health and death there was a political vacuum left, with several leaders striving for power. Though Trotsky was the presumed next in line and was a popular Bolshevik leader, Stalin, Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev formed an alliance or troika to ensure that Trotsky didn’t obtain power. Many leaders wanted to go return to normal now that the crisis of the Civil War was over and Trotsky represented more revolutionary ideas. Eventually the troika broke up and the United Opposition formed against Stalin’s Communist party.

Leon Davidovich Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, is one of the most well-known revolutionaries in Russian history. He played a major role in the October Revolution and was a Bolshevik who had been influenced by Marxist ideology. He was one of the most dominant political figures in Russia’s history. This dominance, combined with his passion was why Leon Trotsky was an important factor in the Russian Revolution.

The Five-Year Plans were a series of goals which each took five years to complete, that were aimed at quickly improving the economy and industrialisation of the USSR so that it could compete with Western Capitalist countries. According to Stalin in a speech on 7 January 1933, the first Five Year Plan was a great success in terms of its outputs, and furthermore because the working class was able to complete the first Plan ahead of schedule in only four years16(Source B).The Plan was successful in creating an iron and steel industry, a tractor industry, a machine-tool industry, a chemical industry, an agricultural machinery industry and an aircraft industry16(Source B). In addition, the USSR now ranked among the first for electricity, oil products and coal outputs in the world16(Source B).In another speech delivered by Stalin in April 1928, Stalin discusses the modernisation of agriculture and puts forward his idea of Collectivization to increase agricultural outputs for the USSR17(Source C). Stalin knew that agricultural production and development was very slow, and was thus negatively affecting the country’s economy17(Source C). Stalin blamed this slow development on the fact that the USSR still had an “insecure” and “primitive” system of economy because of

Stalin obtained a significant focus on heavy industry, for he knew it would only bring benefits to those who follow him; however, his viewpoint of what could be accomplished opposed to what people in the USSR believed can be achievable. The first plan adopted by the party in 1928 “set goals that were unrealtic- a 250 percent increase in overall industrial development and a 330 percent expansion in heavy industry alone” (Document 1). People believed that the USSR was still in its developing stage; therefore, a demand in increasing industrial production by a large amount will not happen in a short period of time. Problems began to evolve due to the unrealistic demands Stalin put into place. Managers and company owners believed that the quote they had to achieve was unreasonable leading to conflict.

He ended up resorting to “war communism” during the Russian Civil War, and the Bolsheviks needed to quickly produce goods. When the war was over, Lenin became sick and Trotsky began ruling after him. Trotsky took the role of controlling the corrective measures

Stalin desired to be the leader of the Communist party, and was willing to manipulate his opponents and play them off against each other, which he did successfully. He first joined forces with Grigory Zinovyev and Leon Kamenev (other replacement candidates) to lead the country. He used them to get rid of the most likely replacement for Lenin’s position, Leon Trotsky. Lenin had always wanted Trotsky to replace him if anything had happened; however Stalin’s heart was hardened and he ended up kicking him out of the political loop. Even in Lenin’s political testament, he worried about Stalin’s mental stability and stated that he should not be chosen to rule (Service 124).

Stalin came into power in 1924 after the death of Lenin. He made plans for economic development within Russia through a series of five year plans for industry and agriculture. When Stalin took control of the Soviet Union, it was still a peasant dominated country and he believed that the USSR had to modernize and industrialize quickly, along with the agriculture. More productive farms would provide more labor; large commercial farms would be able to increase the production and provide the necessary food to feed the workers and Stalin wanted to raise capital by selling surplus food abroad. in 1929 Stalin introduced collectivization and the plan for it was that peasant farms would be joined on which they were allowed to keep a small plot for

Stalin and Lenin may have been on good terms within the party,if not friends,but the possibility of power can change that. On May 25,1922, Lenin got hit by a stroke when recovering from surgery to take out a bullet (Service 191). Lenin soon showed distrust towards Stalin probably because he feared that he would take over the party. Of course, he already made Stalin the General Secretary, raising the possibility of him leading the party. When Lenin died on January 14,1924, the only obstacle to Stalin path was Leon Trotsky,another possible successor of Lenin.

Stalin commences his new “revolution from above,”otherwise known as the Soviet Union’s first Five-Year Plan, in order to create rapid industrialization, especially in heavy industry. This Five-Year Plan as well as Stalin’s full collectivization would give the communist party more control over the people as well as the Soviet’s economy. In 1932, at the end for the first Five-Year Plan it is estimated that the steel and iron industries output increased by 50% and that electricity, petroleum, machinery, chemicals, equipment and fertilizer industries increase was over 50%. New factories were built and new cities emerged, however, the farming was a bust and by 1932 over 1 million people in Kazakhstan alone had died of famine caused by Stalin’s forced collectivization. The 1932 famine had in part transpired due to the peoples fight against collectivization and the governments attempts with brutality to force it leading to deaths of the workers and not enough people to work the farms.

Stalin frequently fought with Leon Trotsky and Stalin took harsh measures to ensure discipline and loyalty. In 1922, Lenin got sick and Stalin became one of the main people between Lenin and the outside world. Lenin became untrusting of Stalin, not liking his arrogance and love of power, just like Macbeth. In Lenin’s testimony he wanted Stalin removed from power.

After Lenin, who was Stalin’s sort of mentor, died Stalin “methodically went about destroying all the old leaders of the Party” (PBS) and he first exiled them, then he realized they could still do him harm he either revealed them as an enemy to the people or just plain assassinate them like he did with Trotsky, who was killed by one of Stalin’s assassin's with a ice pick. Joseph Stalin then went on to create something now known as the Great Purge or the five-year plan where he killed and exiled millions of innocent people. He mainly focused on the wealthy peasants aka. the Kulaks where he deported or killed about five-million of them. His five-year plan also called for a 250% increase in the overall industrialization and also a 330% increase in in the heavy industry.

Stalin and Trotsky Stalin and Trotsky were rivals that had different views. Each thought that they knew what was best and they were doing what was right. Stalin and Trotsky both had experiences growing up that impacted and influenced them to become revolutionaries. They were both fighting against each other to claim Lenin's spot as leader.